When this alien, land-crawling predator turned up in seven states, Washington was forced to act. Or was it?

Fifteen minutes of fame might not be much--unless you're a fish, in which case that flash of notoriety is more than you had a right to expect in the first place. When it comes to the northern snakehead--the reputed land-walking, air-breathing, migrating Chinese predator that caused such panic when it turned up in a Crofton, Md., pond last month--the story may be even harder to kill than the fish. Faced with snakehead sightings in six other states, the Bush Administration--its hands arguably full with the war on terrorism, the Wall Street meltdown and the ongoing parade of corporate scandals--took time out...